A man walking entirely alone
By:
Moftah Al Ammari
T.:
Ghazi Gheblawi
Lonely enough with what I am
That which is my body in the simple
clothes
Running as if the lightenings are my
shoes
Howling alone:
Oh, she-wolf
Take me from my mouth
Away from your bosom
Everything becomes in extreme
rottenness and grandeur
The sparrows wear their mystic fear
And the terraces raving with
extincted suns
Alone
Waiting every night
With fearful ears
For my house to fall down
Take me from my mouth
Oh, she-wolf
I am tired from my wife
When her hands tide me with
confident imagination
Wake up my dear,
The morning has emerged
I am tired from my children
While they grow
Without toys or sweets
From the conspiracy
Of salty and non-running water
In our shabby districts
I am tired
From the Bedouins storming into the
streets
With jeans trousers
Everything is in extreme rottenness
and grandeur
Tranquility is not a roof
And women are not the same
Lonely and enough
Every dream that doesn’t lead to me
is false
And every celebration of my death is
nonsense
The ink is my kingdom
There is always a tiding for me to
name
I paint a city
With children that never thirst
And draw another woman
And I might play with the fire that
isn’t beside me
Then I howl alone:
Oh, she-wolf
Take me from my mouth
Since thirty summers
The evenings come barefooted
There was a body and hands for me
here
And my window was beside me:
A moon spilling its shape on my
mother
And I don’t understand
Why the love was so secret to the
limit
That I became not understanding.
O, Mother, guide me to myself
She said: the wind is my wet
nurse
So slow down
There is no milk in the cup to drink
I said: its fine
I will be satisfied with my lonely
imagination
And let everything be in extreme
rottenness and grandeur
Because we’re very quite
Always riding the bus
Crossing to the next day
Where the faces look bewildered to
my shadow
And think:
A man walking entirely alone
Howling
Oh, she-wolf
Take from my mouth
Tripoli- 1991